1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a structure of plasma display panels and a method of manufacturing the plasma display panels.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Application No. 2005-081909, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A surface-discharge-type alternating-current plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as “PDP”) includes two opposing glass substrates placed on either side of a discharge space. On one of the two glass substrates a plurality of row electrode pairs, which extend in the row direction, are regularly arranged in the column direction and covered by a dielectric layer. On the dielectric layer, a magnesium oxide film having the function of protecting the dielectric layer and the function of emitting secondary electrons into the unit light emission area is formed by a vapor deposition technique. On the other glass substrate, a plurality of column electrodes extending in the column direction are regularly arranged in the row direction, thus forming the unit light emission areas (discharge cells) in matrix form in positions corresponding to the intersections between the row electrode pairs and the column electrodes in the discharge space.
Phosphor layers, to which the primary colors, red, green and blue are applied, are formed in the respective discharge cells.
The discharge space of the PDP is filled with a discharge gas consisting of a gas mixture of neon and xenon.
The PDP initiates a reset discharge simultaneously between paired row electrodes, and then an address discharge selectively between one of the paired row electrodes and the column electrode. The address discharge results in the distribution, over the panel surface, of light-emitting cells having the deposition of the wall charge on the dielectric layer adjoining each discharge cell and no-light-emitting cells in which the wall charge has been erased from the dielectric layer. Then, a sustaining discharge is produced between the paired row electrodes in the light-emitting cells. The sustaining discharge results in the emission of vacuum ultraviolet light from the xenon included in the discharge gas filling the discharge space. The vacuum ultraviolet light excites the phosphor layer, whereupon the red, green and blue phosphor layers emit visible light to generate an image on the panel surface.
Conventionally, in PDPs structured as described above, it is difficult to improve the luminous efficiency of the panel while preventing an increase in the breakdown voltage and a decrease in the discharge probability in each of there set, address and sustaining discharges, and the compatibility between them has been an issue over the years.